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There are a number of ways in which federalism affects many aspects of US government and politics. Here are a few important ways:
1) Variation in state laws concerning such matters as the age at which one can drive a car and must attend school.
2) Variations in penalties of law breaking from state to state.
3) Complexity of the American legal system, having both national and state courts.
4) Each state having not only its own laws and courts but also its own Constitution.
5) Complexity of the tax system: income tax (federal and state); state property taxes; local sales taxes.
6) State-based elections, run largely under state law.
7) The frequency and number of elections.
8) Political parties being decentralised and largely state-based.
<span>9) Regional diversity (the South, Midwest, Northeast etc.) and regional considerations when making appointments to, for example, the cabinet, or when 'balancing the ticket' in the presidential election.</span>
hough the War of 1812 was dubbed “Mr. Madison’s War,” his role in the prosecution of the war was relatively ineffectual. Elected in 1808, President James Madison was intimately familiar with the ongoing diplomatic and trade conflicts with Britain. As Secretary of State under President Jefferson, he was the principal architect of the “restrictive system” of trade embargos designed to force Britain to relax its control of Atlantic trade. Madison’s support of this failed system lasted well into the war itself.
Madison’s attempts to resolve disagreements with Britain peacefully was viewed by some in his own Republican party as a sign of weakness. A group of pro-war Republicans, led by Speaker of the House Henry Clay, argued that military force was the only option left to combat British imperiousness. These “War Hawks” were not a majority of the party, but over time, their influence acted on more skeptical party members.
President Madison eventually did bring a declaration of war to Congress, but his leadership in planning for war was mostly absent. Republican ideology was intensely skeptical of the concept of a national standing army, preferring to rely on state militias, and the Madison administration, following in the footsteps of Jefferson, did much to starve national military forces of men and material support. His influence on Congress was minimal, and in retrospect, it is hard to understand how he, or the War Hawks for that matter, felt that the United States had the necessary military resources to prosecute a war on multiple fronts.
